coffee & creativity

Monday, December 3, 2018

It's official. I'm hooked on this whole junk journaling thing and I'm really enjoying the swaps organized in the Facebook group Trashy and Flowish Junk Journals. Until I can achieve the bandwidth to make video flip-throughs of these projects, I decided to create separate posts to document the art I send away. I also realize that I need a way to archive ideas that I might otherwise forget down the road.
I sent out two swaps last week.

This first one is a Flow-ish Journal. This is basically a stash swap where the contents cover an assortment of inspiring journaling papers, images and ephemera that can later be removed by the recipient to use in their other art. Elements are not permanently bound or glued.

I'm not a scrapbooker or card maker so my own stash consists mostly of images I've collected throughout my years as Theatrical Costume Designer/student as well as cards and papers I decorate myself.

This cover is a file folder that I collaged, painted and stenciled

I've tucked in several decorative napkins which are fun to use in collage

I also have a very large collection of art related postcards

I have a lot of costume reference images

the butterfly is a napkin I fused to cardstock and then stitched on the sewing machine

there's a little cluster in the corner using scraps and postage stamps

there's a piece of eco-printed watercolor paper

a belly band made of cardstock infused with a napkin

french playing cards

and paper clips with fibers attached otherwise known as Hairy Paperclips

coffee stained ledger paper

painted junk mail envelopes

a napkin/cardstock journaling card

copies of my hand drawn butterflies

and stamps on resume paper

I made a snippet roll

scraps and small images stitched onto a strip of fabric

tea dyed doilies

magazine pages stenciled and outlined a with gold paint pen

pieces of "Drop Paper" (sheets of calligraphy paper used under what I'm arting)

hand made tagsthe pages are held in place by a length of bakers twine that wraps around the spine and the papers slide underneath the twine

the two signature covers are mixed media paper stenciled with tea

stenciled magazine pages

a decorated recycled envelope holding some clusters

I collaged some napkin scraps onto an insert

from a box that held 12 small wheels of cheese

(I work at a cheese counter)

some more drop papers that I added some stamping and stenciling to

I folded up some tourist maps into pockets to hold some of the handmade tags

This is my latest "Signature Swap". It's an 8 page signature (two 8 1/2" x 11" sheets folded in half) to form a completed signature. The decoration is permanent with pockets and bands that can hold tags and journaling cards.

Friday, November 30, 2018

I can't say I'm much of a fan of either of these patterns, but it was a fun challenge getting them to work with the previous weeks challenge.

Other stuff I've been doing:

My first attempt at Faux Gelli printingIn lieu of a $40 gel plateI squirt the paint onto an .89 cent sheet of fun foamand roll it with a brayer

then layering on some stenciling

I made a collage out of the paper I used to clean off the brayer

adding some stamping and stenciling to

then I color copied it

playing with my new circle punch

I have several art journals in the works:

random watercolor backgrounds on the latest Trainwreck journal

My Travellers Notebook Junk Journal
the cover is made from sheets of baby wipes
I use in clean up from other projects
I glued several together to create a large sturdy sheet
ran it around the sewing machine several times
then finished it off with painty circles

the signature is made from a bunch of random papers

including a coloring book page

I glue in fun things and there's space to write notes

I coffee/tea dye index cards and use those to write notes,

ideas and art prompts from my YouTube sessions at the cafe

I paint, stamp and art random pages

My 2nd Junk Mail Journal

literally made from junk mailinitially a challenge prompt from one of the Facebook groups I followbut I have so much fun with this that I finished oneand immediately started another